http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
For the mullahs in Iran, the light may have just turned green.

When he was running for president in 2012, President Obama drew a red line in the sand and said if the Syrian regime crossed that line, by using chemical weapons on its own people, there would be a price to pay. They've done just that several times since the President spoke and so far there has been no price to pay.

Now President Obama tells us that he wants to use force against the Assad regime, but wants Congress to get on board before he takes action.

"This menace must be confronted," Mr. Obama said, as he argued for using force to punish the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Not acting, he said, "risks making a mockery of the global prohibition on the use of chemical weapons."

"I'm ready to act in the face of this outrage," the president said. "Today I am asking Congress to send a message to the world that we are ready to move forward together as one nation."

This may be the right thing to do, but on the Arab street caution may look like dithering; it may look like weakness. Could it be, they must be wondering, that the American president never wanted to get involved in Syria in the first place and is now hoping Congress gets him off the hook by withholding authorization for the use of military force against the Assad regime.

Staying out of this mess may also be the right thing to do. After all, no one knows how things would turn out if we launch missiles into Syria. Will they retaliate by attacking Israel? And what happens when the Israelis retaliate?

How could the president look at those pictures of so many dead children, victims of poison gas, and then do nothing  especially after he warned the Syrian regime that there would be consequences for their actions? But what if an American attack leads to a wider war and other civilians, including even more children, are killed in the maelstrom? No one can know what will happen if we introduce missiles into a neighborhood that's already unstable.

No, there are no good answers.

But this president is aware that most Americans are weary of war, especially if it involves attacking a country that poses no direct threat to the United States. So the president brings Congress in. If it votes no on war, the president is off the hook. If it votes yes and things go badly, he can say, I didn't do this alone.

This brings us to the mullahs in Iran. They see what we all see: an American president who said he wouldn't let Syria cross a red line, but before this is over, may wind up doing nothing, despite his warning. So why, they must be wondering, should we take seriously his warning, repeated many times, that he would never allow Iran to possess a nuclear weapon?

Just one day before the president spoke, Secretary of State John Kerry, sounding more presidential than the president, made the moral case for punishing the Syrian regime.

"It is directly related to our credibility, and whether countries still believe the United States when it says something. They are watching to see if Syria can get away with it, because then maybe they, too, can put the world at greater risků

"It is about whether Iran, which itself has been a victim of chemical-weapons attacks, will now feel emboldened, in the absence of action, to obtain nuclear weapons. It is about Hezbollah and North Korea and every other terrorist group or dictator that might ever again contemplate the use of weapons of mass destruction. Will they remember that the Assad regime was stopped from those weapons' current or future use? Or will they remember that the world stood aside and created impunity?"

Mr. Kerry, understandably, didn't bother mentioning that it is President Obama, with his campaign talk about "red lines" and "game changers" that has put U.S. credibility into question. It is President Obama's loose talk during his re-election campaign that puts into question "whether countries will believe the United States when it says something."

There is no easy way out for the president. Not now anyway. He should never have made off-the-cuff remarks about red lines in the first place. But it's too late now to do anything about that.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and author of several bestselling books, among them, Bias, a New York Times number one bestseller about how the media distort the news. He is widely seen as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. Mr. Goldberg covered stories all over the world for CBS News and has won 10 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism. He now reports for the widely acclaimed HBO broadcast Real Sports.

He is a graduate of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey and a member of the school's Hall of Distinguished Alumni and proprietor of BernardGoldberg.com.

Previously:

•09/02/13: MLK Knew the Difference Between Nooses and Handcuffs
•08/27/13: If President Obama Had a Son He Might Look Like . . .
•08/20/13: Do We Really Want Another Coronation in 2016?
•08/12/13: Wanna Know What's Wrong With Journalism?
•08/06/13: CNN Finds Benghazi Terrorist Suspect; FBI Doesn't
•07/30/13: Don't Blame Me --- Blame Those Phony Scandals
•07/23/13: What President Obama Left Out of His Talk on Race
•07/17/13: Do We Need Affirmative Action for Conservative Journalists?
•07/15/13: Zimmerman is Not Guilty . . . What About the Media?
•07/09/13: Should We Ever Punish Journalists for Publishing Secret Information?
•06/25/13: Re-Defining Racial Discrimination in America
•06/18/13: Freedom in an Age of Terrorism
•06/11/13: Which is More Honest: Roller Derby or the Obama Administration?
•05/30/13: Did Eric Holder Lie to Congress?
•05/23/13: How Do We Know Fox reporter Isn't a Commie Spy?
•05/21/13: How High Does the IRS Scandal Go?
•05/14/13: When Is a Scandal Not A Scandal?
•05/09/13: Jodi Arias, Cable TV, and a Nation Fascinated by Shiny Objects
•05/03/13: Global Warming May Lead to Sex --- for Money
•04/30/13: Of Red Lines, Game Changers and U.S. Credibility
•04/23/13: The Boston Marathon Bombings and the Importance of Getting the Story Right
•04/15/13: Media Ignore Mass Murder Trial
•04/09/13: Obama Compliments a Woman; Feminists Offended
•04/04/13: When the Government Goes Bankrupt
•03/18/13: Don't Blame Him --- He's Only the President
•03/12/13: Sun Still Rises After Sequester So Prez Comes Up With Plan B To Insure Hardship
•03/11/13: A President We Can't Be Proud Of
•03/05/13: New Poll: Nation on Wrong Track . . . So Which Party Gets the Blame?
•02/26/13: A President Who Is Rooting for Chaos
•02/22/13: Obama: The World Is About to End . . . (Or Not)
•02/19/13: Rubio Reaches for Water --- Crime of the Century
•02/13/13: Drones, Double Standards and the So-Called Mainstream Media
•02/06/13: One Small Step for Man, One Giant Step for Nut Jobs
•01/30/13: Obama and Fox: Here We Go Again
•01/25/13: CBS News Political Director to Barack Obama: Destroy the GOP
•01/21/13: Just a Thought . . .
•01/15/13: Al Gore is No Run of the Mill Hypocrite
•01/14/13: The High Cost of Obama's America
•01/08/13: Another Reason Libs Make Me Laugh
•01/07/13: Al Gore Hates Oil But Loves Oil Money
•12/31/12: Memo to GOP: Make Obama Own the Mess He's Created
•12/24/12: GOP In More Trouble Than They Probably Know
•12/18/12: Taking on Guns Will Be the Easy Part
•12/17/12: When Obama's Words Mean Nothing
•12/10/12: Do You Believe in Magic?
•12/04/12: Obama and the Dolts Deserve Each Other
•11/27/12: When the Ends Justify the Meanness
•11/20/12: Our Mesmerizer-in-Chief
•11/19/12: This Pretty Much Sums It Up . . .
•11/12/12: Santa Claus and the GOP Civil War
•11/07/12: Obama Wins . . . and Loses
•11/01/12: Out on a Limb, Predicting A Big Victory For . . .
•11/01/12: Should Mitt Talk to Bill?
•10/30/12: Really Dumb Conservatives . . .
•10/23/12: Debate #3: How Much Does Foreign Policy Matter If You Can't Find a Job?
•10/22/12: When Conservatives Are As Dopey as Liberals . . .
•10/19/12: Journalists' Who Don't Even Try to Hide Their Bias
•10/17/12: Obama Stopped the Bleeding --- But Was That Enough to Change the Momentum?
•10/15/12: No Winner in the Debate --- But Maybe a Loser
•10/08/12: The October Surprise
•10/04/12: Civil War in the GOP Could Go Nuclear on Nov 7
•10/01/12: Even If He Wins, Obama Will Lose
•09/27/12: Obama Picks Up a Crucial Demographic
•09/26/12: If Obama Thinks He Inherited a Mess Four Years Ago . . .
•09/24/12: A Good Way to Kill Free Speech
•08/30/12: Facts I Have Uncovered About the Real Mitt Romney
•08/23/12: Hope and Change, R.I.P.s
•08/16/12: Who's Smarter: Joe Biden or Yogi Berra?
•08/13/12: His Silence Makes Him Complicit
•08/07/12: Did You Know that Harry Reid Got Rich Pimping Out HOs?
•08/02/12: Like Birds on a Telephone Wire
•07/30/12: What Me Worry? YES!
•07/26/27: The Mystery Continues --- A Tale of Two Polls
•07/16/27: We've Set a Low Bar for 'Courage'
•07/11/27: Will Class Warfare Work?
•07/09/27: A Brave New World
•07/02/27: Now the Fun Really Starts
•06/19/27: You Can't Make This Stuff Up . . .
•06/19/12: I Would Have Fired Him Before He Got Back to the Office
•06/12/12: Time to Crush the Myth about Gender Pay Inequality
•06/06/12: The Desperate Campaign of Barack Obama
•06/01/12: Hey Fatso! Listen Up!
•05/25/12: Going After the Stupid Vote
•05/22/12: The X Factor(s)!
•05/15/12: Obama Has a Halo; Newsweek Has No Shame
•05/10/12: Authoritarians on Campus
•05/08/12: Obama's Path to Victory: Divide and Conquer
•05/01/12: President Cool Meets Reality
•04/25/12: Why Media Bias Matters
•04/17/12: NYT: At It Again
•04/13/12: Kissing up to the Rev. Al
•04/10/12: This Just In: War Breaks Out --- Thank You, Lord
•04/03/12: In Cold Blood?
•03/27/12: Trayvon Martin and Media Hypocrisy
•03/26/12: Time to Go, Rick
•03/22/12: Obama's Mantra: Don't Blame Me
•03/19/12: The U.N. Human Rights Council --- and other Jokes
•03/13/12: Bias in the News: Blame it on Their Zip Code
•03/06/12: Thank Heaven for Rich People --- a Second Look
•02/29/12: Some Free Advice for the Republican Field
•02/28/12: Do We Have a Right to Lie?
•02/16/12: Can Obama Win Re-Election by Promising Free Stuff?
•02/06/12: The 5 Stages of Mitt
•02/02/12: Florida Has Spoken; Cue the Fat Lady
•01/30/12: The Other Global Warming Story
•01/26/12: They See Racists Everywhere . . .
•01/24/12: The Arrogant and Clueless Mainstream Media
•01/23/12: Gingrich Wins SC --- Media Help Big Time
•01/18/12: A New Entry for 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America
•01/12/12: The Dream Ticket Could Be a Conservative Nightmare
•01/11/12: Now 'Anybody But Romney' Has a Name
•12/30/11: I Have a Confession to Make . . .
•12/27/11: Know When to Hold 'em and Know When to Fold 'em
•12/20/11: NBC News, the KKK and the State of Journalism
•12/19/11: Mitt and Newt: Two Rich Guys Arguing Over Money
•12/13/11: Donald Trump Is the Greatest; Just Ask Him
•12/12/11: Rob Peter to Pay Paul: Bad Economics! Good Politics?
•12/07/11: Yeah . . . and Fish Don't Know They're Wet, Either
•12/06/11: Did the Media Play Fair with Herman Cain?
•12/05/11: Obama to Blue-Collar America: Adios!
•11/29/11: We Can Stop the Crazy Train Before It Gets to Greece
•11/22/11: Who Can Beat Obama?
•11/15/11: The Dumbest Media Question I've Ever Heard
•11/09/11: What If Herman Cain Did It?
•11/08/11: What If Herman Cain Were a Lib?
•11/02/11: Who Can Beat Obama?
•11/01/11: We're Approaching the Tipping Point
•10/25/11: A Response to the Angry Purists
•10/18/11: They're Waiting for Reagan to Hit the Campaign Trail
•10/12/11: Read This!!! --- But Only If You Have Nothing Better To Do
•10/04/11: Can Obama Win Re-Election?
•09/27/11: It's NOT the Economy Stupid, It's Theology
•09/20/11: Bad News on the Doorstep
•09/09/11: Hypocrisy!
•09/06/11: Back to the Future
•08/24/11: Hillary vs. Obama in 2012? It'll Never Happen --- I Don't Think
•08/22/11: Warning: Conservatives May Be Harmful to Your Mental Health
•08/17/11: Warren Buffett, Coddled Billionaire
•08/11/11: Too Much Balance in the Media?
•08/04/11: All Aboard the Crazy Train
•08/01/11: Liberal Hate Speech
•07/25/11: With All Due Respect, Go Fly a Kite
•07/20/11: Who Is A Natural Born Citizen?
•07/18/11: Guess Who's Not Paying Their Fair Share
•07/12/11: Against More Taxes? You May Be a Terrorist!
•07/11/11: Casey Anthony: The TV Show
•07/06/11: Standards and Double Standards at MSNBC
•06/29/11: Is Jon Stewart A Racist?
•06/21/11: Let's Play the Race Card --- Just for Fun Of Course
•06/20/11: Sarah Palin and Weiner's Weiner
•06/03/11: Memo to GOP: Turn Mr. Obama into Mr. Yesterday
•05/20/11: I Get Letters From People Who Should Be Locked Up
•05/09/11: Is Torture Ever Justified?•05/02/11: The Promiscuous Use of the R Word•04/19/11: The Man Behind the Million Dollar Smile•04/12/11: What's the Difference Between Libs in Politics and Libs in the Media?•04/08/11: An Idea Whose Time Has Come  and Gone•03/28/11: The Pundits Are Driving Me Crazy --- And You Thought Qadaffi Is Nuts•03/14/11: No Liberal Bias at NPR  Just Ask NPR•03/10/11: The media's frustration •03/01/11: Progressives Lost in Time . . .•02/23/11: The Lamestreams Strike Again --- This Time in Madison•02/03/11: You MUST Own a Gun --- Or Else!•01/20/11: It Was Horrible, I tell you … HORRIBLE!•01/11/11: Here We Go Again . . .•01/06/11: You Go, Oprah•12/28/10: A Year-Ender --- The MSM and Obama's Fall from Grace
•12/14/10: Thank Heaven for Rich People